Between the Sheets of a manilla folder
by Lucid Ataxia
Summary: Post-ep for 'Judgment Day'. Maybe Vance's actions weren't quite as sinister as they appeared. Rating is for some language.


**AN:** I came up with this after rewatching _Judgment Day_. I had the thought that maybe Vance wasn't quite the bad guy he was made out to be.

**Disclaimer:** I own neither NCIS nor its characters. This was written for entertainment only - no profit is being or will be made.

**_Between the Sheets (of a manilla folder)_**

Walking down the stairs from the director's office was entirely too reminiscent of the memorial service they'd returned from less than an hour ago. After Vance had handed the three ridiculously large files to Gibbs, his team had scarcely waited to be excused from the sham of a meeting. He knew it was a toss up as to whether seeing Vance already settled comfortably into _her_ office or the unconcealed hostility over the new assignments was the reason for their swift and silent exit. He was betting on a good bit of both.

Now, though, as he watched DiNozzo, McGee and David slowly cross the floor to their desks, he wondered what, exactly, had kept him from speaking against the decision. Almost as soon as the thought formed, he knew the answer, and it pissed him off almost as much as the rest of the last several days had. Vance was slick – way too slick; he had set it up perfectly, summoning them the moment they had returned. It was definitely calculated; there was no other explanation, and nothing less than this whole cluster-fuck of a week-month-year combined with their raw grief could have kept all four of them from protesting.

"What now, Boss?" It had been McGee who finally spoke; Gibbs wasn't surprised at that. Tony was obviously still drowning in misplaced guilt, and Ziva was no doubt conflicted with rage and shock over being sent back to Mossad; neither were likely capable of speaking without venting the combined forces of their close-to-the-surface, frayed emotions on the first person – regardless of their identity – they saw , and they both knew it. They also knew that neither McGee nor Gibbs deserved their anger in the form of the sharp, scathing words that would likely fly from their mouths. This situation was so completely far from anything they experienced in the past that there would be no 'tomorrow' to make up for carelessly harsh words thrown about in the heat of the moment.

Gibbs tossed the three files onto his desk rather unceremoniously before turning to face McGee and making sure all his agents – and they were _his_ agents, damn it – were paying attention before he spoke. This was his team; they were his people, and he was going to make sure they knew that. They should _already _know that, but then, this year hadn't exactly been the best for any of them. He could attempt the reassurance thing, just this once. Maybe.

"What do you think, McGee?" Tony spoke up before Gibbs could open his mouth and saved him from possibly having to not be a bastard; he couldn't help but notice that, whereas there was a time when that remark would have been casually smug and superior, his senior agent sounded more tired and defeated than any other time since he'd known the man.

"You'll get to go play with the geek squad," Dinozzo continued, not even trying to sound like he was making a joke at the younger man's expense. "Ziva," he went on with a vague gesture in her direction, "gets to go back to her _old job_." And the way he emphasized those words told Gibbs that Tony knew exactly how much Ziva wasn't looking forward to returning to her father's side. "And me?" At this point, the humorless bark of laughter that forced its way from DiNozzo's throat made all of them, including Gibbs, flinch slightly at the all encompassing bitterness relayed in that single sound.

"Well, I get a nice promotion on a luxury liner. It'll be like a vacation for all of us, even Gibbs," he finally finished, his outburst relatively minor when all was said and done. It had actually been tamer than anything Gibbs originally expected, and he didn't feel the need to say anything. By the looks on both McGee's and Ziva's faces, they agreed with the sentiment behind the words wholeheartedly, anyway. He also noticed the barely hidden sympathy they directed towards the senior agent and found himself agreeing with their silent assessment of Tony.

To say that Tony's year had him on the edge of burnout would be a severe understatement. Taking a long, discrete look at the worn out figure as DiNozzo stood silently between his and McGee's desks, Gibbs decided they had been lucky the man hadn't pulled his own version of running away to Mexico. Turning his attention to Ziva, he couldn't help but notice that she, too, appeared to be on the edge of her own breaking point. When this mess was sorted out, he was going to consider a real vacation – for all of them.

The truth of the matter was that, of the four of them, McGee was the only one who didn't look as if his world was completely falling down around him. It probably had something to do with the fact that the junior agent had really only been on the periphery of the investigation this past week – not that he wasn't affected in his own way. The entire point with McGee was that _this_ wasn't his life like it was for Tony, Ziva and himself. The younger man was definitely shaping up to be a fine agent, but he didn't eat, breath and sleep the job like the rest of them did. And maybe, in Gibbs mind, it was better for the team to have someone who could balance them in that way.

When he finally saw Tony move from where he was standing, it wasn't to his desk but to Gibbs'. Already guessing at his senior agent's motive, he didn't stop the hand as it lifted the first of the three files from the desk and open it. He didn't utter a single word or throw the slightest semblance of glare when McGee and David moved to read over DiNozzo's shoulder. They needed to know every detail, including information pertaining to their 'replacements', if they were going to fight this thing. He wasn't expecting the reactions he saw reflected in their faces.

"But this is…" Ziva started in surprise before firmly pressing her lips together and narrowing her eyes. The slight relaxation of her tense shoulders told him almost as much as Tony's next words did.

"Oh, yeah," the senior agent stated, his tone matching Ziva's and a genuinely amused, albeit unnoticeable to the casual observer, look blossoming on his face. "This will making breaking in Probie seem like a wet dream for you, Boss." Gibbs barely noticed the halfhearted yet slightly upbeat 'Hey' as McGee protested the nickname purely out of habit. Instead, he took their obvious – only to him – changes in attitudes as a reason to actually open the second folder in the stack. He only barely managed to contain his own head from shaking at what he read.

Not an hour after his agents had finally left his desk and went about cleaning out their own in a fairly subdued manner did they finally begin to make their general leaving noises. He wasn't surprised at the somewhat lengthy goodbye on McGee's part, nor was he shocked at Tony's and Ziva's much less drawn out words. Only the soft sound of whistling that followed his senior field agent into the elevator – probably going to see Abby and Ducky – behind the other two broke him from his study of the files, the tune causing a brief smirk to make itself at home on his face before settling back into a scowl.

Thinking about what was to come, he had to admit that McGee would have the easiest time; the only real adjustment he would have to make would be to the people and his surroundings. He would, after all, still be in DC with the right kind of backup should the need arise. Gibbs would have no trouble keeping a discrete eye on the young man in the days ahead.

David would have a few problems, but she had more than a few contacts and favors she could call in. That was on top of any favor he could come up with – and there were several people in and around Mossad that owed him – if he had to. She would also be in a familiar setting, performing familiar tasks – things she had been trained for since birth.

DiNozzo, though, would be in a situation just as bad as, if not worse than, his most recent undercover assignment. There would be no backup, no quick and easy way to communicate in an emergency. He didn't doubt the man's ability in the slightest, but he didn't like having any of his people alone in this kind of situation. At least it would be sanctioned, this time, unlike that _La Grenouille_ mess.

Vance, the prick, had done his homework, and he had done it well. In a matter of days, the man had realized that McGee, while loyal to Gibbs, was also still too much governed by NCIS protocol. Tony and Ziva, however, belonged to Gibbs. Vance may not have liked it, but it was what he needed for this operation – people who were willing to follow Gibbs' more unorthodox, perhaps less than kosher, approach that the strict NCIS protocol wouldn't allow for. Anyone going so deep undercover was required to have both that kind of deep loyalty and moral flexibility. Those were things that McGee just didn't have, may never have.

Looking over his files – files that McGee had managed to copy for the rest of them – Gibbs once again took note of the three people assigned to him during this indefinitely long but necessary op. She had to be in on it because there was no other reason for Agent Lee to be assigned to him for the duration. She had more than proved herself in a short term undercover assignment, and he could only assume that Vance had determined that, despite having only been under Tony's command for a few months, she was completely loyal to him. The other two agents listed, well, he would have to just make sure they stayed in the dark on anything other than the cases this temporary team would work.

As he eventually made his own way to the elevator, Gibbs couldn't help but notice the smirking Vance at the top of the stairs. He still didn't like the man, but he respected that he was doing what was needed to be done to clean house – and that included more than just NCIS. This whole mess was tied in with the CIA and the FBI and went as far back as Ari, if not farther. It still didn't mean he wasn't going to give the bastard a good, firm boot to the head when it was all said and done; after all, no one messed with Gibbs' team – no one.

And as the elevator closed, leaving him in privacy for the first time in several hours, Gibbs allowed the smirk threatening to form underneath all his grief and anger to emerge. No one would have believed that just moments before the doors opened to the parking garage, the man leaving the elevator was anything but completely enraged. They definitely wouldn't have considered that he had also been whistling the theme to _Mission Impossible_ just prior to the doors opening.


End file.
